In the related art, the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus plays an important role in the current medical services as a medical image diagnosis device having various advantages such as being easy and convenient to operate, being non-invasive with no possibility of exposure, and being of small device scale.
In other words, the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus can display the state of movement to be tested such as the pulsation of the heart or the movement of a fetus in real time with a simple and convenient operation of merely placing an ultrasound probe on the body surface. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus is also very safe as it is non-invasive, and can carry out the test repeatedly. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus has a small device scale compared to other medical image diagnosis apparatuses such as an X-ray diagnosis apparatus, an X-ray CT (Computed Tomography) apparatus, and an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) apparatus, and can easily carry out the test by being moved to the bed side. An apparatus miniaturized to an extent it can be carried around with one hand is also being developed in the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus that has no possibility of exposure, where such ultrasound diagnosis apparatus can be easily used even in medical sites such as obstetrics or home medical care.
The diagnosis method using the real time property of the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus includes the following procedures. If a tumor lesion is found in the ultrasound image, which is a tomographic image, the operator may rotate the ultrasound probe (e.g., rotate 90 degrees) to observe the mass lesion with a different cross-section, or measure the size of the mass lesion. The operator can determine whether the shape of the mass is circular or elliptical according to such observation. The cross-section of most blood vessels is circular. Therefore, even with respect to the site that appears circular on one ultrasound image, the operator can check that the relevant site is tubular by referencing the ultrasound image generated with the ultrasound probe rotated 90 degrees.
The observation involving the procedure of the operator is carried out in real time, and hence the ultrasound image for diagnosis is often recorded as a moving image including even during the rotation of the ultrasound probe. The two-dimensional tomographic image, however, involves the following inconveniences.
In other words, as the scanning surface of the ultrasound wave changes along time series when rotating the ultrasound probe, it is difficult to distinguish how the ultrasound probe is being moved even by referencing the ultrasound image. For instance, it is difficult for the reader to distinguish the difference even by referencing the ultrasound image for when the ultrasound probe is rotationally moved and for when the ultrasound probe is moved in the perpendicular direction without being rotated since the scanning surface changes in both cases. In particular, when browsing the recorded moving image after-the-fact, or when a person other than the operator reads the image with reference to the moving image, it is difficult to determine the movement state of the ultrasound probe simply from the ultrasound image. If the ultrasound probe is parallel moved along the fault surface, the reader can easily determine the movement state of the ultrasound probe as it moves to the right or the left while maintaining the pattern in the ultrasound image on the moving image.